He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright

They walked into an open marble lobby surrounded by towering glass and stone. Half of the windows gave a view across the green horizon, while the other half, acting like parabolic lenses, showed scenes miles away. A nest of birds, a hot spring, a smoking volcanic vent. A bar glittered off to the side, backed by bottles of every color and shape. A waterfall poured down the far wall into a pool., and the crystal water flowed in a curving path across the floor and fell out below one of the massive windows, reflecting sunlight and spraying up droplets of rainbow.

The walls twisted up into a shaft half a mile high towards a round disk of blue tropical sky. Something snaked and shined like a ribbon of diamond caught in the wind. The stream that fed the waterfall, running in twisting paths of its own gravity.

Philip snapped his fingers under Gradie’s face.

“Remember how we got here and what this place looks like, so next time you can take a door.”

Gradie had another idea. He pointed his index finger and thumb and his map popped up. A dim transparent square like a CRT screen on channel 3, black with a white frowny face in the center.

“That shit won't work in here,” Philip said. “Those things usually have skimmers hidden inside. Tells the maker where you go. Let the twins get you an actual map.”

“Speaking of the twins, where are they?” Lindsey said.

“They were supposed to be here waiting for us.” Philip glared at the bare walls, daring the twins to step out from nowhere. Lindsey smiled softly.

“Doesn’t sound like them.”

“They knew I was coming!”

‘Oh, well that’s a bit different, isn’t it? Did they say, “Yes Phillip, we will be standing around at the lobby when you get here”, or—”

“Klara told them we were coming to train the fucking new hire, where else—”

“You know why Michael is always telling Klara “tell the twins”? Because he doesn’t want to have to track them down.”

“I’m so glad he let me know about their little arrangement.”

A window floated out of its frame in the far wall. Lindsey kicked off the ground and floated toward the sunshine.

“They’re probably at the castle.” Her voice echoed in the hall.

“God forbid they leave their toyhouse,” Philip said, walking leisurely after her. Gradie, never missing a chance to fly, shot over Philip’s shoulder and out the window. He rolled to a stop on a silver platform spreading like mercury at Lindsey’s feet. Her shoulders sagged as she watched Philip.

“Do you have an aversion to getting anywhere fast or something?”

He pointed his chin at her and blew smoke out his nose. “Never got the hang of flying.”

Lindsey sighed and a puddle of the liquid silver shot across the floor. It pooled at Philip’s feet and carried him to the platform in a heartbeat, leaving a trail of cigar smoke behind him.

“Thanks darling.” He smiled at Lindsey. To Gradie’s shock, she smiled back. Philip, for once, was speechless.

Gradie looked down at his legs, which had gone suddenly cold, and guessed what was hidden in her smile. The silver platform had flowed up to his thighs, and Lindsey’s waist, but left Philip untouched. It shot off at a speed impossible anywhere else and Philip barely had time to flail his arms before he slipped off and dropped to the jungle below.

“Oops.” Lindsey smiled at the rushing canopy for a moment, then went all stoic again and turned on Gradie.

“Pay attention to the route. Remember where the Castle is in relation to the tower.”

“The Castle?”

She didn’t answer. Gradie looked back just in time to see the tower disappear behind the horizon.

“There.” Lindsey pointed ahead of them, where an ocean broke out under the sunset sky, and something on the beach flashed then went dark. In another heartbeat, it grew angles and its shadows differentiated. A castle, exactly how any kid would picture one, turned up to eleven. Dark grey stone with spire towers. It took over the horizon and broke out across the sky. They dropped down suddenly into the trees and landed in a clearing. The silver platform flowed into a pouch on Lindsey's belt and Gradie’s feet sank into soft soil.

It was a dense temperate forest that to Gradie looked distinctly American, the kind he would have waged airsoft battles across as a kid, but struck through with impossibly tall pines and oaks. There were things hidden in the trees. Simple buildings and ornate elvish complexes, stuck up in the branches like massive wasp nests, covered in burn marks and bullet holes. The ground was littered with craters and broken barricades.

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“Thought they’d be out here,” said Lindsey, marching towards a black marble bridge. Gradie followed, the gravity too assertive for him to even consider flying.

“Cant call them on the coms. They say it's too distracting.” Her words were muffled by a white water roar rising up the canyon. Looking down from the bridge, Gradie saw the land around was at least a hundred feet above the water. A twisting river rushed by in rolling rapids far below.

A raven cawed high above the castle. Gradie barely had time to reflect on the first animal he had seen in the Otherworld when the big wooden doors groaned open and Lindsey disappeared inside. Left alone on the bridge, for a moment, that feeling of everything speaking to him that had taken him in the Allcity returned, but this time, it was a gentle song, an offer to join in, rather than a negotiation for payment. Still, it felt like being left with someone else's pet. He hurried in through the door.

Lindsey led him down a high ceilinged stone hallway, lit by a glow just brighter than moonlight and lined with tapestries and paintings, moving portals to other lands, much like the living art pieces in Lucy’s home. Gradie got the feeling the hallway, and probably everything else in the castle, had been severed from any permanent location. He was sure that it wasn’t always right inside the front door, but whether he knew this because of a subtle dream knowledge being communicated through the walls, or by a now more experienced sense of how the Otherworld operated, he couldn’t be sure.

A wooden door creaked open at the end of the hall and a warm light flooded into the dim hallway, cramping its style.

The room inside felt like a suburban living room deep into an all-night gameathon, suddenly thrown into a castle and given room to grow beyond its wildest dreams.

Marble pillars and smooth tree trunks reached towards the ceiling, where overcast-heued daylight glowed through a central skylight. The walls were covered with shelves, and the shelves with books, game cases, weapons, and other unidentifiable things behind glass. The floor was covered in thick carpets, futons, mattresses, cushions, and sank towards a curving couch at the far side of the room, facing a massive screen. Gradie blinked at it twice to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. SSB Melee, Fox vs Link.

Someone was reclining on the couch, their long dark hair flowing over the back.

Philip walked in through a door that opened behind a swinging bookshelf.

“Hey Turl! Where’s Klaupaucius?” The guy on the couch floated up and spun around.

“What?” He was in his early twenties, with hair a maroon so dark it was almost black. He had on black robes and silver jewelry, and a sword on his hip with no scabbard, its blade made of pure emerald.

“Never read Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem?” said Philip. “Thought yall were into all that sci-fi shit.”

“Sounds familiar. I’ll try and find it.” His fingers fluttered and small lights flashed on the tips.

“Gradie, this is Angel,” said Lindsey. “Gradie is our new recruit.”

“Cool! Welcome to the team,” Angel said, shaking his hand. “You an operator or what?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“He’s the one who made the last kill,” said Lindsey.

“Oh yeah! Now I recognize you. That was a clean kill.” He smiled and leaned in like they were sharing a joke.

“And Lucy was pissed you were able to drop in through the projection. Michael was giving her shit—”

“So where’s Nova?” Philip said quickly.

“Oh, outside.”

“Nova! Get in here!” Philip's voice came in on the comm channel, his lips locked in a scowl.

“You know he doesn’t use that thing,” Angel said, laughing. “Come on.”

A wooden door in the wall swung open with a horror movie creak. Angel and Lindsey went out talking about something and an orange light bloomed from the other side.

Gradie followed them outside and onto a set of natural stone steps that winded down over aquamarine tidepools towards a white sand beach that seemed hundreds of miles away from the climate of the castle, but when he looked back towards the door, as it disappeared in the cliff face, the castle towered above.

“There he is,” Angel said, nodding out towards the beach.

The horizon was a psychedelic kaleidoscope of sunset hues, and the sun pulsed in time with the music that came from everywhere, like a nuclear-powered subwoofer in the sky. The rolling ocean shimmered from gold-orange to deep blue, lapping into a lazy turquoise as it met the sand. With a gentle wind, it was a perfect temperature, just far enough into the heat of summer.

A tall, tan man with silver and gold spikes for hair was surfing a wave on a board made of crystal. Something glittered on his neck as he cut towards the beach. The music picked up as he approached.

“What’s this song?” Gradie yelled out. His voice reverbed and melded into the music.

“Listening Winds by Khetzal. Encoded into the fabric of the universe! A million times better than vinyl! Woo!”

He did a flip into the air and surfed an unseen wave over their heads, all in time with the beat.

“Can you come down out of the clouds for two seconds so we can get this done?” Philip yelled. His voice was forcefully discordant with the music, which dropped in volume after he spoke.

“I was hoping I’d get to see you dance, Philip.” The man smiled as he landed on the beach. His board melted and flowed down the sand to join the rest of the crystal water. A necklace of galaxies trapped in marbles and planets with spinning rings and raging eye-storms orbited his neck. His hair and shorts flowed as if gravity had abandoned him. It was like looking at a carbon copy of Angel, with all the color and personality swapped around.

“Nova. Nice to meet you Gradie.” He held his hand out and Gradie shook it.

“Answer your comms next time,” Philip said. “I’m not Michael. Any time I waste trying to track you down, I’ll be taking out of your cut.”

The twins just laughed. Nova put a hand on his shoulder.

“Philip, bro, we like you, but we’re not gonna put some dinger in our head for anyone. Michael shoulda told you that.”

“He’s busting your balls, Nova,” said Angel. “I was right there when they walked in.”

“Bullshit,” Philip said. “We went to the tower—”

The twins cackled.

“There’s your mistake bro!” Nova yelled. “I’m not trying to even be seen at that tacky fucking lobby!”

“You built it!” Philip boomed. Nova looked offended and Angel raised his eyebrows.

“Bro don’t remind us. Klara wanted some place to make clients think Hardworlding is like running a hedge fund.”

“Next time just come to the castle.” Nova shook his head. “I don’t know why you haven't been by anyway. We got a bunch of gear we need—”

“Can we focus on the task at hand, please?” Lindsey’s voice came in like a cool breeze. The twins nodded.

“All right, let's do it.” Nova slapped Gradie on the shoulder.

“So, you ready to learn how to be a real Hardworlder?”